German communist leaders honored 100 years after slayings

Left-wing German politicians and supporters have gathered at a Berlin cemetery to honor two communist leaders who were killed 100 years ago in the turbulent aftermath of World War I.

Leaders of the opposition Left Party laid wreaths honoring Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht at the capital’s Friedrichsfelde cemetery on Sunday. The party derives in part from East Germany‘s ruling communists.

Many others laid red carnations at the site in the annual commemoration.

Those present included East Germany’s last hardline leader, Egon Krenz, under whom the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and his successor Hans Modrow, the now-defunct state’s last communist leader.

Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed on Jan. 15, 1919, by soldiers who arrested them shortly after a failed uprising.